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Are You as News Literate as You Can Be?

As a communications strategist, you might believe you’ve mastered the information landscape and are immune to misinformation. But unless you’ve learned skills to effectively put your emotions in check, you, your friends, family and business network will remain susceptible to being misled and mis/disinformed. This is where the benefits of being news literate will help you process information from a skeptical perspective rather than through emotional reasoning and cynicism. The News Literacy Project has specially designed a three-part webinar series for PRSA. This series will provide you with key concepts that will enable you to be effective in assisting your clients, improve your own ability to be well-informed from reputable, standards-based sources and better recognize when we are being influenced or manipulated.

 

Webinar Series Episodes

Part I: Recognizing News and Differentiating It From Other Types of Information
We can learn about current events from a wide range of sources but not all of them are trying to inform us in a way that is fair and accurate. We must be able to recognize different types of information and their sources and how each has a unique purpose in the information landscape.

Duration: 37 minutes
Part II: Learning a Nuanced Approach to News Media Bias
Bias in the news presents itself in many different forms. While news should be accurate and bias minimized by standards-based outlets, we’ll discuss the surprising ways bias creeps into news coverage and we’ll focus on a nuanced way to evaluate and minimize its impact in the coverage you receive.

Duration: 47 minutes
Part III: Understanding Misinformation and Motivations Behind How It Spreads
Misinformation is a very broad concept and unfortunately the term has been weaponized and politicized (similar to “fake news”) in ways that make discussing falsehoods difficult. In this session we’ll identify common types of misinformation along with a discussion of the motivations behind how and why propagators spread it, how you can protect yourself and your clients from this type of manipulation, and why, as a PR pro, you must engage in the battle against mis- and disinformation to stop the threat it poses to your work and our democracy.

Duration: 48 minutes

Presenter

John Silva
John Silva

Accreditation

Participants with the APR credential earn 0.5 CEUs for each webinar in this series.

Learn more about Accreditation.

Registration Options

PRSA Members: $0.00
Nonmembers: $200.00 each webinar in the series
 

 

 

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